Bosworth MP David Tredinnick knows more than many about the policitical intricacies of South Africa, having worked and studied there in the 1970s.

After hearing of the death on December 5 of its first democratically-elected president, Nelson Mandela, the Conservative back-bencher was quick to pay tribute to the man who “made” modern South Africa.

Mr Tredinnick said: “I was absolutely immersed in South African politics for a long period of time.”

At the age of 23, he trekked across South Africa, working in Johannesburg in 1973-4 for an advertising agency and studying for a business degree at Capetown University in 1974-5, living in the country at the height of the apartheid regime.

He said: “Mandela went from being a terrorist to a liberator.

“I have been to Robben Island. I have been in his cell and seen where he lived for 27 years.

“He somehow disposed of his own anger and managed to persuade his own supporters not to go on the rampage, when the country was on the brink of going up in flames.

“Mandela served the country by putting aside all that anger you might expect him to have, dissolving it, and saying that he wanted a peaceful solution.

“The partnership he struck with De Klerk was like the Good Friday Agreement, that brought together seemingly implacable enemies.

“The moment when he dressed in Springbok colours and presented the Rugby world cup to Francois Pienaar - a white hero - was a really big moment in history.

“He was an amazing man.”

n The borough council has opened a book of condolence at its reception at The Hub in Hinckley.

Borough council chief executive Steve Atkinson, said of the former South African leader: “He changed people. He changed lives. And he changed the world forever for those who followed.”